When we are angry we are blind to reality. Anger may bring us a temporary burst of energy, but that energy is blind and it blocks the part of our brain that distinguishes right from wrong. To deal with our problems, we need to be practical and realistic. If we are to be realistic, we need to use our human intelligence properly, which means we need a calm mind.

Like this:

PNP Leader Clayton Greene says his arrest is a part of a plot to criminalise locals

Stressing that the British are on “a mission to tarnish the reputation of Turks and Caicos Islanders”, Leader of the Progressive National Party (PNP), Clayton Greene said that being arrested by the Helen Garlick-led Special Prosecution and Investigation Team (SIPT) is no justification for him to step down as leader of that political organisation.
Greene made his position clear after an email calling him to relinquish the leadership post was circulated to media houses and some of his political colleagues by an anonymous group called the TCI Militia, after he was arrested, bailed but not charged on January 17th, in relation to his law firm’s handling of one million dollars which his cousin Quinton Hall received from the sale of land for a proposed upscale condominium development in North West Point.
“I am going to continue going forward. I have been arrested. And so, until something else happens, I am going to go forward as leader of the party. If something else does happen, then the party would have to reassess its situation, but no one should be in any doubt that an attack on Clayton Greene will stop the forward march of the Progressive National Party.
“If I leave tomorrow, there are people that will lead the party to the future. So from a partisan perspective, even though I accept that the British may well see this as an attempt to control or manipulate who will lead the PNP. The PNP will be led,” Greene insisted
Greene, a former speaker of the House, did says however, that should charges be slapped on him on February 7, when he is to return to the Office of the SIPT, he would have to reconsider whether or not his decision would affect the future of the party.
“I think ultimately that if there is a charge, one has to reassess his position whether he can move forward, whether it is in the best interest of the party for him to move forward with a charge hanging over his head. That is something that I would have to seriously consider. And certainly, in those circumstances, a resignation is not off the cards and it would be the noble thing to do,” Green said.
In the meantime, Greene said he felt victimized on the grounds that the British want to punish him since he served in the former Michael Misick administration, before he was forced from office by members of his party who turned against him, in the twilight of that administration.
“It is the only reason that I am being investigated. The SIPT cannot be convinced of my guilt because there is nothing there. And so, I am satisfied. The only reason that I have been arrested is to further, in my view, what is a mission by the administration, using the SIPT, to criminalize the people of this country, and more so, to cut off the heads of persons who they feel are leading political parties in the directions that they don’t want the parties to go. If you are prepared to challenge them in this country, then you ought to be wary,” Greene argued.
He added: “. By now we should all be aware that the British are on a mission to tarnish the reputation of Turks and Caicos Islanders and that cannot be right and it certainly is not in the best interest of the Turks and Caicos Islands and we should continue to fight against it at all cost. While we cannot control their actions we can control our responses to them. We should never allow them to divide us. My fellow Turks and Caicos Islanders let me assure you that I have been honest in all of my dealings both professionally and politically. To those who would wish to see the PNP obliterated from the political landscape and are for that reason reveling in the news of my arrest you have my sympathies. The PNP is much bigger than me or any single politician. It is here to stay and will outlive all of us. To those in the Administration and elsewhere who think that my arrest will somehow make me less critical of an incompetent, arrogant, and vindictive Administration or for that matter cause me to fail to make public my belief that the Interim Administration, SIPT and the Civil Recovery Team are together perpetrating the greatest rape of Turks and Caicos Islanders that we have seen since the days of slavery then you don’t know me at all and you are sorely mistaken as you will come to see.”
Giving background to the circumstances which led to his arrest, Greene said that in December 2011, he was approached by SIPT, who wanted to interview him concerning US$1 million which his cousin Quinton Hall had received for his 2006 sale of a his interest in Crown land. He said he did not act for Hall in the sale, however his proceeds of sale were deposited a trust account which his lawfirm firm operated at TCI Bank and from which he disbursed the funds on Quinton’s instructions.
“The relevant funds were drawn on the account of a reputable institution in the Turks and Caicos Islands held at a commercial bank in the Turks and Caicos Islands and I had no reason to suspect that they were anything other than clean funds. When I deposited the funds into my account its source was declared to the bank and the bank did not question me further on it. I also had no reason to doubt that the transaction was anything other than legitimate. I say to you as I said to the investigators during the interview when he mentioned the phrase flipping in a negative Sense, that this term has only been criminalized in recent years and that many people, some of them Englishmen, made millions trading in Turks and Caicos Islands land, and concessions that ought otherwise to have brought benefit to Turks and Caicos Islanders.”
“All of a sudden when Turks and Caicos Islanders benefit it has without more, become criminal. I believed then, as I do now, that these funds were 100% legitimate and the investigators have not said anything during the interview to persuade me that as regards the transaction with which my firm was concerned that I was mistaken in that belief,” Greene said.
The PNP Leader said that notwithstanding contrary advice both legal and otherwise, he ultimately decided to cooperate with SIPT and agreed to be interview under caution. He said he understood from the investigators that his arrest was “procedural in order to facilitate their obtaining the caution statement”.
Greened continued: “I feel that if I am to continue to be true to my duty to always be truthful and open with the people of this country, then I have no choice but to cooperate. In a corruption investigation, however prolonged and expensive and sometimes unfair and one-sided it might be, I do not have the luxury of hiding behind a right to silence, because I am the one asking the people of this country to trust me and to have faith in my judgment and in my character and this is something they cannot do if in the circumstances of a corruption investigation I am seen not to be cooperating.”
Greene said he will continue to be truthful in connection with this or any matter upon which the SIPT choose to question him.
eantime, in another statement which was directed to the PNP Militia, Greene said he would like to express a sincere hope that when a request for the resignation of any, leader is made, that those making the request be brave enough to identify themselves and not behind masks and meaningless names.
He stated: “If you would remove the mask from your face you will quickly see that this country is at war. The war is not with political leaders particularly those who are prepared to stand up and speak out against the injustices of this evil regime and in so doing subject themselves to all manner of abuse by an unchecked Executive. These abuses include arrest, charge, and imprisonment. The war, my friend, is against those who seek to cripple our economy, to stifle the growth of our middle class, to repossess our land and render us a country of tenants paying rents to white men, to dismantle our institutions, to take over our parliament and deny us representation, to burden us with unbearable taxes, to criminalize us all and thereby remove from our children those examples of Turks and Caicos Islanders that engender in them pride and a sense of place. If you are the soldier you claim to be, join the Leader of the Progressive National Party in fighting the real enemy.”
Greene added: “The Leader of the Progressive National Party will not run and hide at the first shot of battle as you suggest he does. He will not be silenced by the declaration of war. Your faceless request for him to step aside made not 24 hours following his arrest is respectfully denied. This country needs soldiers, men and women of strength and courage. People who understand that in war there will be casualties and are prepared to take that risk. What we do not need and ought not to tolerate are frauds – self proclaimed militia men. We need Comrades who will band together in true brotherhood to fight the common enemy for the common good.

There is no place on this battle ground for the self righteous weak who parade around in a cloak of anonymity and self importance throwing daggers at the very ones brave enough to fight.”
Posted Jan 23 2012 in SUN TCI,the leading newspaper in Turks and Caicos Islands

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts the human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority.

An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself. This is difference made legal. On the other hand a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.

One who breaks an unjust law must do it openly, lovingly […] I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice. […] Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

MLK Jr. Response to an open letter by fellow clergyman critizing his participation in civil rights demonstrations

Chair woman of the Consultative Forum Lillian Misick expressed disappointment in the Governor’s decision to close TCINVEST.

Is her disappointment because of closing or because not be informed?

Governor’s in Turks and Caicos Islands are working like Consultancy Companies,without responsibility ,because they are not elected,they are appointed!

They imported people from UK ,mostly of them without qualifications for their jobs.They are in Turks and Caicos because they are not able to get jobs in UK.They have no sense for Caribbean,they have no sense for the culture,they have no knowledge.They are here because they have no other job.

They are getting the jobs from local people,which are doing this since years.

But because of “CORRUPTION” they are not trusted.

Turks and Caicos Islands is the first country in the history governed with only advisors!

Lillian Misick has to understand,that she is also not trusted!She have to accept it or go away like other people before her.

Wait,she will have other decisions,very important decisions in this year,served to her in parking places from the Governor or his advisors.

Here the statement of Lillian Misick about TCINVEST scandal decision of first very welcomed Governor Todd.

Subject: TCInvest

Dear Governor Todd

I feel compelled to state for the record how truly dismayed I am by the way you have gone about making, and informing us of, your decision to abolish TCInvest.

Many of us greeted your inaugural promise to run a collaborative and transparent administration in good faith and with goodwill. And even though I have been moved on a few occasions since your inauguration to challenge you to honour it, that promise has never seemed more hollow than it did during the Forum’s closed session this morning.

I was so caught off guard when your Director of Strategy Philip Rushbrook informed me in the parking lot on Friday of your decision to abolish TCInvest that I requested an urgent meeting, which you graciously granted yesterday afternoon.

At that meeting you explained the reasons why you thought this decision was necessary. I countered by explaining that your reasoning was fundamentally flawed because it focused entirely on the mismanagement and abuse of the agency; i.e., to coin the phrase you used, perhaps unwittingly, you were throwing out the baby with the bath water.

To be fair, I gathered that you were basing your reasoning on a report by UK Advisor Stephen Turnbull, a copy of which you were kind enough to present to me midway through our meeting. But I felt constrained to question the reliability of its findings after glancing a section on the Business Development Center : I served as chairman of TCInvest for 5 years and director of the Business Development Center 10.

I thought it would give you pause when I pointed out that it strains credulity to think that any advisor could produce a comprehensive report on the functioning of this agency, let alone my department, without speaking to me.

In fact you paused long enough to reassure me that it was only a draft report and that you were quite prepared to grant my request for the Forum to hold a public hearing so that the proffered reasons for closing TCInvest could be properly examined.

Yet less than 24 hours later you were insisting in our closed session that there was no need for further discussion because your mind had been made up, presumably based on Mr. Turnbull’s flawed and incomplete draft report.

Let me hasten to clarify that I have never questioned your authority to make this or any other decision. Which makes me wonder why you continually assert – with the gratuitous force of a parent asserting her authority to discipline her child – that you have this authority.

My sole purpose for appealing to you on this and other matters was to get you to demonstrate that your talk about making your interim administration the most honest, open, and transparent in the Caribbean is not just hot air.

Alas, that you were adamant to the point of appearing defiant this morning about your decision to abolish TCInvest, despite the earnest pleadings of members for just a chance to be heard, made it clear to all present that my appeals to you have been in vain.

I hope you appreciate how much credence this gives to those who dismissed the Forum from the outset as nothing more than a rubber-stamp for the neo-colonial machinations of British interlopers.

This is profoundly regrettable and portends dire consequences for our UK-TCI relationship.

A torch is a fire source,usually a rod-shaped piece of wood with a rag soaked in pitch and/or some other flammable material wrapped around one end.

The torch is a common emblem of both enlightenment and hope.

“Our torch” is not filling the definitions from above.

Our torch is Misterrr John Hartley,the husband of famous lawyer Misss Monique Allen,in Turks and Caicos Islands,which earned a lot of money through Dellis Cay companies in the recent years.It is a big question,how many interest of conflicts she had through all these times?She is representing the Trinidad institution ,lender of Dellis Cay.Dellis Cay construction is stacked now more as two years because of political issues in Turks and Caicos Islands.

The sources in Turks and Caicos are telling that John Hartley,as husband of Miss Monique Allen,wrote letters as Torch to Trinidad institution before receivership of Dellis Cay and pushed the end of Dellis Cay with wrong background information’s through her wife!And the institution believed them.

The same John Hartley is reporting to London as well are telling the sources in Turks.

Nobody knows their real goals?

But only Miami Herald and The SUN reported in October 2011 about him in the below article.

Please protect yourself from their actions and read carefully the below article.

John Hartley named in million dollar lawsuit in Florida Local businessman and economist John Hartley has been named as a defendant in a $4million lawsuit that was filed last month in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
The law suit is being brought by American multi-millionaire R.D Hubbard, who is also a Turks and Caicos Islands Belonger and a major investor and property owner here. It stems from a deal in which investors were convinced to come up with $4.5 million for shares in an electric car company, but they apparently got nothing for their money.
Court documents obtained by The SUN showed that Hubbard, through Edward Burger who is acting as trustee for the Hubbard Family Trust, is suing Hartley along with, John Mattera, Bradford Van Siclen, John Ray Arnold, and Praetorian Fund Limited (www.praetorianfund.com), of which Hartley is a director.
The story was even published in the Miami Herald on Friday.
According to Miami Herald, The Fisker Karma — a sleek, plug-in hybrid sports sedan — made its long-awaited debut earlier this year, and to heaping praise.
Car and Driver called the sports car, which fetches upwards to $100,000, “striking, luxurious, and easy on big-car guilt.” Popular Mechanic added: “The Fisker Karma is a standout luxury and performance vehicle, period.”
According to the court documents, Hubbard is seeking to to recover substantial damages caused by Defendants Praetorian, G. Power, Mattera, Hartley, van Siclen, Arnold and Fund blatant and fraudulent misrepresentations in soliciting Plaintiffs to invest $4.525 million to acquire shares in Praetorian and/or G. Power, based on false representations that such interests would provide indirect ownership of Series A Preferred shares in Fisker Automotive Inc. (“Fisker”).
It is alleged that Praetorian, G. Power, Mattera, Hartley and van Siclen, at various times, represented Plaintiffs these shares were owned by Mattera, Praetorian or G. Power. However, after they made their investment, Plaintiffs never received the shares reflecting their membership interest in Praetorian. Plaintiffs then discovered that Mattera, Praetorian and G. Power did not own the Fisker Series A Preferred shares.
It is also alleged that Arnold and First American participated in these securities violations by violating their duties as escrow agents to the Investors who trusted them to hold their moneys pending a proper closing of this transaction.
The court document said there is also an action for breach of fiduciary duty against the escrow agents for this transaction and an action for breach of contract against Praetorian, because Praetorian took Investors’ money but did not issue them shares representing a corresponding interest in Fisker shares and insofar as Praetorian and G. Power do not own the Series A Preferred shares in Fisker.
It is also alleged that Praetorian, G. Power, Mattera, Hartley, van Siclen and Fund fraudulently induced Plaintiffs to purchase membership interests by telling Plaintiffs that G. Power owned $20 million Series A Preferred shares in Fisker, and that through their investment, they would be purchasing an indirect ownership interest in Series A Preferred Fisker shares to the extent of their purchase.
According to the Miami Herald article, Mattera acknowledges he never owned Fisker Series A-1 preferred stock, which the investors were told they were buying. He did have a substantial holding of similar Series B stock, which he said he tasked associates Bradford van Siclen and John Hartley with selling. Mattera said van Siclen, the New Jersey-based private equity broker who is a defendant in the lawsuit along with Hartley, was responsible for misrepresenting the offer. A message left for van Siclen at his business, The Praetorian Fund, went unanswered this week.
The SUN was unable to reach Hartley for comment up to press time.
Published October 18th, 2011 in the SUN ,Turks and Caicos Islands.